Hikianalia Update: January 9, 2016

Before traveling to Molokai, Hikianalia spent time on Maui; while there, Maui Nui crewmembers engaged in outreach and crew training. See below for an update by crewmember Kala Baybayan Tanaka about the Community Education Day in Lāhaina.

Aloha mai kākou. My name is Kala Tanaka. I just want to aloha you all on behalf of the ‘Ohana Waʻa, Hui o Waʻa Kaulua, and the Polynesian Voyaging Society. We are here in beautiful Lāhaina, Maui on this gorgeous day for our community outreach. Yesterday we had an amazing waʻa talk where educators and students shared how they were using the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage and waʻa in their own curriculum and to share with teachers so they can continue that. Today from 10 o’clock to 1 pm here at Kamehameha Iki Park in Lāhaina we have invited several community partners who we feel are making a positive contribution to the future of Maui. Some of these community partners include Polanui Hiu. They are an amazing grassroots effort of volunteers just here located in this area where they are dedicated to educating the community on healthy practices for taking care of the reef, to mālama the reef, so that we can regenerate our coral and the fish that are living here. Also here we have Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project. The seabirds are so important to navigation and also to everything in our environment. They are so important. They are doing some amazing things here on Maui to bring back the bird colonies and educate on how we can better protect them. And also we have Puʻu Kukui Watershed. So they are protecting and managing our most important resource our water, our aquifer regeneration. They take care of the mountain, they’re up there building fence and getting rid of animals that aren’t supposed to be up there and also trying to discover and count our precious native flora and fauna that are existing. Then of course, Hui o Waʻa Kaulua and the Polynesian Voyaging society with our canoe outreach. So I invite you come down today, 10 am to 1 pm. It’s an amazing day – beautiful – and you can also continue to follow us at hokulea.com. Mahalo.

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